Moonchild
Moonchild is the psuedonym for Cynthia Hill, Head of Research at Comansys. She portrays Moonchild as a hippie and drug dealer. She took the name Moonchild after going on a vision quest in the Amazon. Although her age is unknown, she refers to herself as an "aging hippie" and worked for Comansys for at least 12 years "straight out of uni," presumably placing her somewhere in her 30s. History Cynthia was an exceptionally gifted child. She studied Shakespeare at age 3 and solved wave equations at age 5. She grew up in London, in a house large enough to have a sizable library. When she was 17, she attended Cambridge for a doctoral program in brain chemistry, where she was friends with Ellie Maxted. Her father was waiting right after each lecture to take Cynthia home, calling her nicknames like his "bobotie " or "little pickled herring." When Cynthia needed a break, her father would take her sailing and fishing on his dinghy. When he came to visit Cynthia at Comansys, she "regressed to a childlike state" according to Professor Downes. Professor Downes also said Cynthia was very secretive and always seemed like she might go over the edge. She tried to use her mind control program to make her father perpetually happy, but she only succeeded in giving him brain damage. Mr. Hill ultimately committed suicide by jumping from a great height. Moonchild's father "always had her back," so his death "sent her of the rails." She didn't want to go on after losing him, preferring to sleep, until Gaia saved her. While at an academic conference in Rio, she felt drawn to the Amazon for a vision quest. She took ayahuasca plant and found joy, which she determined she must share with the rest of the world. Moonchild was friends with Sigrid Hakkinen, and the two apparently helped each other in their shared goal to make the world a better place. Sigrid charged Moonchild with shooting down Runner Five's helicopter in exchange for a secret underground lab, much like the one under Abel. Season Three Some time before S3E15 "Veronica," Moonchild went to the Comansys arboreal research center to study the blue flowers. She held a drumming circle with 18 of the 20 researchers, who later left with Moonchild. Veronica McShell and her colleague Vince were busy studying the zombified lynx the night of the drum circle, so they did not leave with Moonchild. Moonchild first appears in "Believe" with a group of zombie cultists. She appears to be just one of the cultists, rescuing Five and Louise from the river so they can help her escape the cave she's been hiding in for five days. She claims that the cultists wanted to trade her drugs for a fueled-up lorry, but they had a bad reaction to her "stash" of LSD and tried to feed her to the zoms. (It is later revealed that Moonchild mind-controlled the cultists into worshiping zombies just to see if she could persuade them to love what they feared the most.) Moonchild is next seen marching toward Abel in the middle of a horde of mind-controlled zoms, holding a tone-producing device. When Abel shoots through the zoms protecting her, Moonchild appears confused and claims to have been mind controlled into leading the zoms to Abel. She later takes Five on a run to find her stash of "medicine," but they're cut short by a rogue gunman attacking New Canton. After convincing an injured member of the Permanent Advisory Council to sacrifice himself for the zoms, Moonchild leads Five, Eileen Sosa, and Bernard Prior to her safehouse. Once they're safely underground, she forces them to drink ginseng tea and listen to tribal remixes of the Hair soundtrack. Five leaves much sooner than the other two. Because of her claims of addiction and mind control, Moonchild accompanies Paula, Maxine, Five, and Louise to the Tavington Clinic in "Insane in the Brain." Once she hears that the legally blind Professor Holly Farnsworth is on her way, Moonchild says she will be entering a silent meditative state to prepare for having her head chakra cleansed. She tries to remain silent, but when she's forced to read Maxine's results aloud, Professor Farnsworth recognizes her. Professor Farnsworth begs Paula to get Maxine out of there, saying that Moonchild is Cynthia Hill, Comansys head of research. Moonchild shoots Professor Farnsworth in the head, and the others flee. In "Aquarius," Moonchild takes Five back to the Laetitia Greenwald to destroy the serum. However, Albert sees Five and raises the alarm. Five shoots to wound rather than kill. Moonchild has Five shut down the generators on the ship and then dive out a porthole. A few Comansys people manage to escape on lifeboats, but most perish in an explosion. Moonchild cries over the "heaviness" of her friends hating her and making her blow up their ships, calling it a "stupid waste," but assures Five it was the right thing to do. Moonchild quickly becomes obsessed with Five. She describes a vision quest she went on in the Amazon after her father's death, where she learned that someone traveling under the sign of 5 would help her complete her life's work. She professes her love for the player and believes they're soulmates, destined to be together forever. In "Shoot the Runner," Moonchild sends a mind controlled Runner Five back to Abel to retrieve the zombie-repelling device. Five sneaks through most of the township more or less undetected, but Jody catches Five just outside Maxine's office. Five knocks Jody out and then steals Maxine's research. As Five goes to retrieve the zombie repelling device, Sam confronts them and tries to coax Five to break out of Moonchild's control. Moonchild tells Five to kill Sam. Five resists, causing Moonchild to turn the tones up as high as they'll go, but Simon jumps in and injects Five with the anti-mind-control serum he rescued before Five blew up the flotilla. In "Listen All You People," New Canton captures Moonchild after tracking her following the destruction of her blue flower supply (needed to make more Ceretin Plus). After they bring Moonchild inside New Canton and seal the gates, she has Bernard play mind control tones on the loudspeakers and takes control of the entire settlement. Eileen takes Five to the tunnels underneath New Canton, convinces them to drink some water, and then plays another mind control tone. Five remains unpersuadable and flees. At the end of the tunnels, Five finds that Moonchild has assembled a massive army with the intention of breaking into Abel to steal back the ZRD. As Moonchild advances on Abel, Janine send Runners 4, 5, and 6 to attack Moonchild's base in Dunderwood. The runners find a huge metal locked door in the base, which Amelia opens with a sample of Moonchild's voice. Inside, they find a massive amount of tinned peaches and computers running modeling programs. Moonchild has been doing her research there. Moonchild diverts her forces from Abel to save her bio lab from Janine's explosion. 1/5 of New Canton's population is trapped underground with plenty of rations, and Abel is saved for the time being. When Maxine, Simon, and Five search Moonchild's house in "Natural Anthem," they find a battery powered tape player and several cassette tapes. Maxine plays one labeled "Dad" and discovers that Cynthia's father was severely depressed. He refused to take anti-depressants and changed the subject when she mentioned electro-convulsive therapy. In a tape that Moonchild kept beside her bed, it's revealed that she used her father as a test subject in her early experiments, which went horribly wrong. He became fixated on the words "Experiment data," causing a panicked Cynthia to terminate the experiment. The damage was irreversible, and he ultimately committed suicide. Shortly thereafter, Veronica explains that Moonchild was the co-author for all of the Comansys studies on the blue flowers. Since Moonchild had mind controlled New Canton residents burn the blue flowers at the treetop base and tricked Abel into destroying the remaining extracts at the tequila factory, the seeds are the only remaining ones on earth. Moonchild also sent a brainwashed Iona Evans to taint the museum's water supply and persuade Veronica to join Moonchild, but Veronica declined and made sure not to drink the water. At Comansys headquarters in London, Moonchild is preparing to use the satellite dish to mind control the whole world. She's most interested in Five, but she's excited to meet Simon and Jamie and to do 'groovy work" with Maxine. She sings her school song, stating that she used to make fun of it as a child but now she "really digs it." Moonchild plans on sacrificing herself, using a neural net to program the ZRD. However, Abel plays clips of her father's voice, which breaks Moonchild's concentration and allows Five to take her down. Simon decides to sacrifice himself and use his own brain to countermeasure the signal Moonchild had already sent out. While Five is trying to bring Moonchild to Maxine so they can zipline off the crumbling Comansys building, Moonchild trips and falls off the side of the building. She holds onto a girder and talks to Five, rebuffing all attempts to pull her up. She reveals that people jumping from great heights has been a problem with her mind control process from the beginning, naming Francesca, Miranda, and her father as examples. She says that she never understood why they did it until that moment. She admires the view below her and tells Five to have Veronica cross reference her seeds at the natural history museum. She also reveals that "they" told her to shoot down Five's helicopter in exchange for an underground science lab. She realizes she can't make everyone else happy, but she can make herself happy. She claims that Five's aura is gold now, like the sun, and then imparts her final words to Five: "We're both headed in the same direction, man, but I bet I'll get there first. Race you." With that, Moonchild lets go of the girder and falls to her death. Season Four Moonchild returns as a voice in Five's head in season 4. When Maxine puts Five in a trance in Brain Damage to try to remember the things Moonchild confided, it triggers hallucinations of Moonchild, who reveals more information about the viking zombie plague. Moonchild leads Five to her secret office building in the woods, giving Five her Comansys black ops staff list as well as her Comansys all-access keycard. (They keycard is used to access the research lab in Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.) Instead of releasing control of Five, Moonchild instead directs Five to continue running in the current direction. She leads Five to another hideout and reveals the complete copy of the Edda of the Wakened Warriors hidden under a statue of Ganesha. Moonchild informs Five that she paid the GDP of Bolivia to have the manuscript stolen from the Vatican archives. Moonchild subsequently shows up under times of extreme stress for Five, perhaps giving voice to Five's subconscious. She guides Five and The Builder through the caves in History Repeating and Church of the Poison Mind. In the episode In Da Club, she identifies the land mines set to kill Five and warns the player not to step on them. She also saves Paula's life by remind Five that tranquilizers can slow down the progression of the zombie virus. Although she can no longer compel Five to do anything she wishes (such as firing a weapon during a stealth section), Moonchild's advice is generally sound. She warns Five to prepare to take General Bakari's gun, then orders Five to run and get both her and Five out of there when things go sour with the general. Moonchild seems more sardonic and seductive as a hallucination than she was in life. Instead of fawning over Five and rambling about new age topics, she can sometimes seem cold or abrupt. She no longer appears to use "hippie speak." Interestingly, Moonchild seems to be emulating Sara. She calls Five honey, reminiscent of Sara's frequent use of the word "hon," and while revealing the complete copy of the Edda, Moonchild repeatedly says, "Just imagine..." which may be a throwback to Sara's threat in Recovery. Season Five At the end of the very first clip of the season, after Sam cries that Runner Five is dead, Moonchild says, "Oh, I'm dying." Moonchild returns in Drive My Car to warn Five about the impending trap. Five doesn't appear to disagree, but it's too late to back out of the plan. In Step Into My Office, Baby, Moonchild appears to be extremely uneasy after five days chained up in a punishment hut. She scolds Five for not listening to her and rambles about religious things: I said so, didn’t I? Didn’t I say so? When do you ever listen to me? *laughs bitterly* When have you ever thought I was anything but a stupid chakra-obsessed aging mind-controlling hippie probably-not-even-real voice in your head, FIVE? But didn’t I say so? Too good to be true. So which of them was it? Who trapped you in here? Was it Steve, who sent that message to trick you? Was it Sigrid or Ian, who tried to tempt you in here? Is there someone in NOAH Base who’s out to get you? Was it luck? What happened?! Oh, I wish I had my copy of the I Ching. I’d throw some sticks and work this out. Monkey Mind, Five. Gotta watch out for it. You’ve been alone in here for five days. Are you going crazy? Again? In You're Still The One, Sigrid reveals that she and Moonchild were friends. They went on meditative runs, during which Moonchild apparently advised Sigrid to leave her one-sided relationship with Van Ark. They had conversations about love and connectedness, which later inspired Sigrid to come up with the idea of resurrecting a virus. Category:People